$500? $500?!? That's all, just 500 measly little dollars?
According to a story in last week's MesquiteCitizen.com, City Attorney Cheryl "Point of Order" Hunt cautioned the new city council during their first-ever Technical Review on Tuesday that deliberations during those meetings might lead to a fine for violating Nevada's Open Meeting Law.
The fine? A whopping $500.
That's just a few bucks more than an individual council member used to get for a car allowance in a month. It's about what the city pays an outside attorney for an hour of their time, or what they give to the myriad of consultants for two or three hours of work.
If that's all it takes for the people of Mesquite to hear the truth and for the city's business to be discussed openly during a meeting, it's a bargain and should be paid often.
I'm not a man of means, but I would certainly be willing to lead a fund-raising campaign to gather donations from the public in order to pay any potential fines levied against a council member for actually speaking up and speaking out during a Technical Review, or any other meeting.
For years, the City of Mesquite has mastered the art of using Nevada's Open Meeting Laws as a shield to hide their machinations. If they spent a fraction of that energy in looking for ways to be more open, the people would be happier and the city government wouldn't be held in it's current position of esteem, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of a crooked used car salesman with a law degree.
Last Tuesday, the newly elected mayor and council gathered for a Technical Review meeting, the first of this new administration, and the first ever to be open to the public.
Previously, the city's dodge was to hold several of the meetings with only one or two council members, claiming that it was a requirement of the OML.
At Tuesday's meeting, the mayor and all five council members were in attendance.
Kudos to new mayor Mark Wier and the new council for opening this meeting to the public, a great first step.
The new mayor has done something noble, courageous, and worthy of our applause. By making the Technical Reviews public, he has opened the process and taken the first step toward bridging a divide which has been alienating the council from its constituents for years. Extremely well done, Mr. Wier!
Boos go to City Attorney POO and whoever made the rule that, while the public could attend, they were not permitted to speak or ask questions.
She also warned the council against talking, discussing, debating, or anything that might be construed as a deliberation, waving that $500 fine around like an NFL official's penalty flag.
Of course, nobody seemed to have a problem with silencing the public, even though there was only one actual member of the public in attendance other than city staff and the press.
According to that pesky Nevada Revised Statute 241, it seems to be a $500-worthy direct violation of the OML.
Specifically, NRS 241.020 2(c) states that the agenda must include "a period devoted to comments by the general public, if any, and discussion of those comments."
So, not only is the public allowed to comment, the council members are allowed to answer back.
However, the excuse is that it wasn't an official, agendized meeting, so the rule doesn't apply.
Once again, it looks like City Hall is continuing to audition for the new hit TV show "So You Think You Can Dance Around The Law."
Also, what's the sense in having a party if nobody gets an invitation?
Wier and the council are half a breath away from the real fix, which is to make the Technical Review an officially noticed, agendized meeting. By doing so, it meets NRS 241 head on, allows deliberation and discussion by the council, and permits the public to attend and speak up.
Once that happens, it will be up to the people of this community to actually show up and participate. Hopefully the meetings won't devolve into protracted sessions of tedium with endless questions and political posturing.
Only then will the city truly be on the road to real transparency.
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